Hello. This is Chris. Today we have an excellent interview with Dave McGillivray about his recent experience of running 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days. We go off script a bit and do a bit of old-guy trash talking too.

I was originally going to skip this week because I’ve been so beat up by work and training recently. But, when I spoke to Dave and heard how great the conversation was I had to get it out.

In section one I’ll talk about how struggling through bad workouts isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In Section two I’ll drop a chapter from the audio book version of my Marathon BQ book called “The Dark Place”.

That’s the theme for this week I guess, struggle and perseverance. Stick to the plan.

As of today, we are 50 or so days out from Boston. My training, although challenging, is, in the grand scheme, going well.

Coming into this weekend I saw that the weather was going to be heavy freezing rain on Sunday and petitioned coach to move my long run to Saturday. He acquiesced and I did a nice sunny run with my buddies yesterday. They ended up running about 2:15 and I went a little longer and hit 2:45. It ended up around 19 and ½ miles for me.

Having run the same 2:45 last weekend on Sunday, that means the two long runs fell into the same 7-day week and I ended up with over 60 miles for the week. That’s something I haven’t seen for awhile.

My legs are holding up ok. I went back out today with some other guys from my club and we did an easy hour in the trails in the freezing rain. No issues. I do need to work more core strength and stretching in because I’m tight, but, hey you can’t do everything.

My tempo runs are coming in around a 7:30 pace which is encouraging. My engine is very strong. My heart is solid. The legs are the constraint right now. I imagine that should improve with all this volume. Bottom line I’m in a good spot for a strong 20th Boston Marathon if we get good weather.

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It’s funny, I wrote that Marathon BQ book a couple years ago because it insisted on getting out of my head. If you were to train with me these are the kind of stories you’d hear over and over. I started the podcast for the same reason, to take all this stuff about running I’d accumulated and get it out into the public where it might do some good.

The book, putts along at a dozen or so a month, spiking in the spring and fall when people tend to think about qualifying! I suppose I should make some effort to find a real publisher given the staying power and what they call “irrational enthusiasm” people have around the topic. I’m too busy. If you know an enthusiastic publisher who wants a market tested vehicle I’ll take the meeting.

But, what really turns me on, what really makes me think ‘huh’, is when I get these emails out of the blue that thank me for it. It really blows me away. I’ll share one here. Redacted, because I don’t have permission.

Chris,

I know that you receive countless "thank you" emails from runners who have found success using your Marathon BQ training plan.... but I wanted to offer yet another.

Last year, I ran the Chicago Marathon - giving it all that I had - finishing in 3:44:24....essentially the same time that finished at the Disney Marathon several years prior.

In one year, using your program, I dropped 23 minutes off of my time, finishing the 2018 Houston Marathon strong in 3:21:04.

My goal was to qualify for Boston....and with a BQ cutoff of 3:25 for my age (46) group, it looks like I will get a bib.

All of those speed workouts really worked!

Looking forward to running Boston in 2019.

Can't thank you enough!

Sincere yours,

Redacted

On with the show!

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

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The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Dave race director, philanthropist, author and athlete

Dave McGillivray is a U.S.-based. In 1978, he ran across the U.S. to benefit the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.[1] Presently he is race director of the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) Boston Marathon and his team at DMSE Sports, Inc. have organized well over 1,000 mass-participatory endurance events since he founded it in 1981.This was taken toward the end of headlands 100 in sept.

In 1978, McGillivray ran across the U.S. from Medford, Oregon to his hometown of Medford, Massachusetts, a distance of 3,452 miles, ending in Fenway Park in Boston. His effort raised funds for the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.[2] Two years later, he ran the East Coast Run to benefit the Jimmy Fund, running 1,520 miles from Winter Haven, Florida to Boston, Massachusetts joined by Robert Hall, a pioneer of wheelchair marathoning, raising money for the Jimmy Fund and meeting with President Jimmy Carter at the White House during the run. In 1982, McGillivray ran the Boston Marathon in 3:14 while blindfolded and being escorted by two guides to raise $10,000 for the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Mass.[3] He competed in eight Gatorade Ironman Triathlons from 1980 to 1989, an individual endurance event consisting of three back-to-back distance events: a 2.4 mile rough, open ocean water swim, followed by a 112-mile bike race and finishing up with a 26.2-mile marathon run.

In 1981, McGillivray ran in the Empire State Building Run Up, an 86-story, 1,575-step run, placing 10th with a time of 13 minutes, 27 seconds. The same year he participated in the annual New England Run where he triathloned (ran, cycled, and swam) 1,522 miles throughout the six New England states raising $55,000 for the Jimmy Fund. The event required a run up and down Mount Washington and swimming two miles across Lake Winneapesaukee, both in New Hampshire, as well as swimming one mile from Woods Hole in Cape Cod towards Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, ending the course with running three miles alongside inmates within the Walpole State Prison and raising $55,000 for the Jimmy Fund.[4] A year later he swam more than seven miles in the Martha's Vineyard Swim, from Martha's Vineyard to Falmouth, Massachusetts, raising funds for the Jimmy Fund and was greeted on the shore by runners such as Alberto Salazar.

In 1986, he formed the first sanctioned running club inside a maximum security institution at Walpole State Prison in Massachusetts. He conducted and ran in numerous distance races inside the prison yard, including completing and winning a full 26.2 mile marathon against inmates.[5]

In 1980, he ran in the Wrentham State School 24-Hour Run, traversing 120 miles in 24 hours throughout 31 cities in southeastern Massachusetts, ending in Foxboro Stadium during the half-time of a New England Patriots football game. Held to benefit the Wrentham State School for the Mentally Retarded, the run raised more than $10,000 for the handicapped.

In 1983, he participated in the Jimmy Fund 24-Hour Swim, swimming for 24 consecutive hours in the Olympic-size Medford High School pool, which totaled 1,884 lengths and covering 26.2 miles (distance of the Boston Marathon), again raising funds for the Jimmy Fund. Also in 1983, McGillivray took part in the Merrimack College New England Bike Ride where he cycled more than 1,000 miles throughout six New England states in 14 days to raise money for a scholarship fund for his alma mater, Merrimack College. In 1986, McGillivray biked again for 24 consecutive hours around a five-mile loop course in Medford, Massachusetts while simultaneously directing the annual Bay State Triathlon being held on the course at the same time. He covered a total of 385 miles, again raising money for the Jimmy Fund.[2]

In 2004, McGillivray and other marathon runners ran across the U.S. following the same path he took in 1978, raising $300,000 for five charities benefiting children. Each year McGillivray runs his birthday age in miles, a tradition he started when he was 12 and realized that running was his passion. McGillivray has also run the Boston Marathon each year since 1973; the first 16 years as an entrant and since working with the race as its director, has run the course after his duties are completed.[6] In 2006, McGillivray wrote “The Last Pick”[1] with writer Linda Glass Fechter, chronicling his childhood as the last pick for team sports because of his small stature, telling readers never to underestimate their own ability to set and achieve goals. The book also covers his life as an athlete and race director.

Outro

Ok my friends you have run 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents with 7 brides for 7 brothers to the end of another RunRunLive Podcast. Episode 4-382 finito.

I’m going to keep it quick.

Things are weird for me personally, professionally and athletically but I’m keeping my head above water. I do feel a bit burnt out. And I think I need to maybe take a couple mental health days in the next few weeks. It comes and goes.

When things get hard I try to remember to be grateful. How lucky am I to have all the things I have in my life? It’s a bounty.

What you will find is that the more you practice gratitude, the more of a self-fulfilling prophecy it becomes.

I would love to hear what you are grateful for. Send me some audio and I’ll put together a composition for us.

Hey folks, how is everybody doing? I am doing fine, thank you for asking.

Here we are in February. Are you watching the winter Olympics? Aren’t they exciting with all those fun winter sports? I

Particularly like the snow-man building. I think the Czechs have a real shot at gold there.

With the Russians banned for doping that leaves the snow-fort-building and snowball-fight category wide open? Who can forget Dimitri Puschov’s overhand ice ball of 88 in Calgary?

I don’t think anyone can unseat the French in competitive pairs snow-angels. They just got that je ne sais quios.

Been a long couple weeks. Started out well with the Derry 16 miler after we last spoke. I ran it as a surge workout and felt fantastic. Finished in almost exactly 2:15. People were a bit startled to see me laying in those 3 minute surges during the race. I’d blow by people like they were nailed down then pull up and settle back into a easy run.

Like I said, I felt great. Finished with a good kick and wasn’t at all sore afterwards. That was at the end of a pretty big build week. Then coach threw me into another build week with two long surge runs. I did them before work down by the river. One in a snow storm and one 10 degrees. Nothing like an 1:30 surge run in a snow storm before work to make your cheeks rosy.

This week I had a bit of a down week. Coach gave me speed work. I had a bad day Tuesday and had to walk away from a 7 X 1600 workout on the treadmill. I was trying to do it after work and I was just mentally and physically exhausted. I rarely give up on workouts but I just could will myself to execute.

But it was ok because it forced me to reevaluate my expectations of myself. I’ve got to come to grips with not being able to do the paces I used to and just execute the workouts to the best of my ability. I’m putting too much pressure on myself to live up to the Chris of 10 years ago. I have to put that baggage away and get out of my own head.

I did a ladder workout in the cold and dark ice of my neighborhood Thursday night. I just ran as hard as I could and didn’t worry about pace. That wasn’t so bad. I was surprised at some of the paces I hit by not paying attention to pace.

Tomorrow coach has me scheduled to do a 10K race simulation. I hate these race sims but he wants to see what I’ve got. I’m just going to go out and run it by feel and, again, not worry about pace.

I’ve got another gym story for you from last week. Actually I’ll give this one to you as a math problem and a ‘choose your own adventure’ story. I discovered something interesting. It turns out one of my daughters has underwear that looks very similar to my athletic underwear, or what they refer to as my ‘man-thongs’, or what we would have called in the 70’s a ‘jockstrap’.

So here is your math problem. If you have the choice of a) going commando in your running tights (when it’s 10 degrees out), or b) wearing your cotton briefs in the workout or c) wearing your daughter’s underwear to your workout, and if you also have the choice of going commando to work, cotton briefs to work or girls underwear to work, How many different combinations are possible (assuming you cannot repeat any of the options for work or workout) and what is the formula?

Originally, I thought this would be a factorial, but I don’t think it is because it’s 2 situations, work and workout. Therefor, unless one of you math geek corrects me I think it’s a simple square of 3. 3 X 3 = 9 different possible combinations of commando, cotton briefs and girls’ underwear.

And this is the choose your own adventure part of the story. You find yourself in a gym locker room at 6:30 in the morning. You reach into your backpack for your running clothes and find a pair of girls’ underwear instead of your athletic underwear. You have cotton briefs to wear to work. What do you do?

On with the show!

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Outro

Ok my friends you have worn your womens’ underwear to the end of another RunRunLive Podcast. Episode 4-381 done and done.

What’s coming up for me? Not much really. I’m sure my training will ramp up as we get into the final weeks before Boston. I used my Baystate time to upgrade my race position. The BAA accepted my Portland time but didn’t take the adjusted time, they took the original net time, which was still a qualifier but 4 minutes slower than what the race directors gave me. That was because they screwed up the course and made us run an extra ½ mile.

My Baystate time is a minute plus faster than that adjusted time, so 6 minutes faster than the time the BAA gave me from Portland. 6 Minutes in the middle of the pack at Boston is probably 3,000 runners. Might even move me up a corral.

I’m not collecting for any charity this year. It’s my 20th Boston Marathon and I’m running it for me, and for you. I’m training for it. If we get decent weather I’m racing it. I’ll do my best and respect it. We will celebrate it together. I’m humbled and grateful that this special race has become part of our lives.

Maybe I’ll run next year, maybe I won’t, but this year I’m going to run and celebrate how lucky I am.

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My wife lost an uncle this week. We went to the wake and funeral. It was good to see her cousins and aunts and uncles. Her parents’ generation is getting to that age.

I knew this uncle from her family events. He was a kind and caring man.

Seeing his kids and the impact he had on his family by being that kind and caring man impressed on me some lessons.

You don’t have to be a superhero or save the world to make a difference in this world. You just have to care for those around you.

You don’t have to overtly do anything special to make a difference. You can make a difference just by being there, being present and caring.

Your actions, even those daily, run of the mill activities that we all take for granted, impact the lives of others.

In fact, it is those small loving and caring moments that have the most impact on the ones we love and care about.

Live your life, go through life, with the understanding that everything you do has an impact on others.

The hustle and bustle of career and stuff is not that important in the grand scheme of things. Keep it in perspective and take time to be present for the ones you love.